Do You Want Fries With That?

This time of year for some reason I find myself making venison burgers often. I don’t know if it’s a change in the weather, the fact that we have a freezer full of fresh venison, or what. Most people like to grill their burgers, which we do sometimes. I find that a cast iron skillet makes a fabulous burger, so mine are usually cooked inside in my vintage griswold skillet. One of things I love about making burgers is that they’re quick and easy, it usually only takes 15-20 minutes to have them ready, and when the weather is this nice that makes for extra time to spend in the garden.
As you can imagine we don’t do regular normal burger toppings. Naturally we use homemade buns, which I bake up and keep in the freezer so we always have some on hand. The burgers are topped with: homemade roasted pear chutney, caramelized onions and local raw milk blue cheese. Our burgers are usually enjoyed with a few of our homegrown potatoes fried in coconut oil. It sure makes for a quick, simple, delicious and healthy meal!

26 Responses to Do You Want Fries With That?

I’m afraid I’m very much a traditionalist with burgers. The ususal is lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle, and catsup. Sometimes I just eat them straight up without a bun with dinner fries and potato salad. You are right about being simple and quick. There’s nothing complicated about a burger. They are of course the best grilled on the Barbie.

We have been eating veggie burgers here lately though! We haven’t eating a beef burger in a couple years or so now. We top our veggie burgers with mustard, mayo, ketchup, bread and butter pickles, and roasted peppers.

Do you share your recipe for roasted pear chutney? I have a good recipe for ginger pear chutney, but its not roasted. My mom has pear-apple and pear trees and she makes chutney every year, but we’ve never tried roasting the pears.

Sure, I’ll have to look it up and do a post about it. It could easily be made with apples, peaches, and other fruits substituted in. The roasted pear is one of my favorites as is the peach chutney I made.

Cheese. There must be cheese on my burger. I love the usual bacon, lettuce, tomato, and mayo, especially in the height of summer, and also go the mushroom, bacon, cheddar, BBQ sauce route. I love kimchi on burgers (anything pickle-ish is great), tomato jam (a nice sweet one), and caramelized onions, which we make in big batches in the oven and keep in the fridge and put on EVERYTHING.

It’s pretty simple, I usually just salt/pepper them heavily on the raw side while I’m cooking them in the pan. Our venison is rarely “gamey” because Mr Chiot’s usually tries to get does & yearlings. The meat is also taken to the processor the same day it’s killed so it never hangs, which can create that typical “gamey” flavor that venison can have.

You can also add some garlic if you want, that should help with the venison flavor. BBQ sauce would help as well. If it’s too much flavor to eat as plain hamburger, I’d recommend using for sloppy joes. When we have a big old buck that’s got some flavor to the meat that’s how we use that specific meat.

You might also try adding a good bit slivered chipped onion and garlic powder (or fresh mashed) to your venison. I also usually add just a little bit of worchestershire sauce and Montreal seasoning… But even before that.. bring your meat out & let it sit on the counter & become room warm.. about an hour.. then add all the above..and let that sit for about 20 minutes.
Makes for great burgers whether you’re using venison or beef.

Oh yes, bringing the meat to room temp before cooking makes them cook much better, they’re much juicier because they don’t need to be cooked long at all. I usually put mine out an hour or so before I cook them.

I will have fries with that please! I like red onion on my burgers, I also like beets.So good. I also like reading what everyone else puts on theirs too and your information on deer. We grew up with venison. I was too young to know anything about the processing of it, and I would now like to get some venison in our freezer. So thank you for the tips on doe and yearling, etc. Emily

Usually I bake the buns first, then I can pull out 2 for a meal and I don’t have to worry about them going stale. I often will make 2-3 batches of them so I have them, especially in the summer. They also work well for egg sandwiches and dinner rolls.